High Performance?

After Schladming I was proper keen for next year.. returning to education I was thinking I was gonna have loads of time to ride and train during the week. Well, I'm a law student and it turns out we have to do shit loads of reading, and it takes bloody ages: there's not as much time for riding as I'd like.

Anyway, that doesn't matter cos Bristol University has a High Performance Sports Squad which if you're fortunate to be accepted onto is pretty damn good. We have access to nutritionists, sports psychologists, physios and a strength and conditioning coach. I've never had access to any of those things so I'm pretty excited about being able to improve my performance next year by tapping into all their expertise and working hard in the gym.

Tuesday night we had a Boxercise session. One of the hardest things I've done for a while, but so good! I'm still a little achy 2 days on, but I'm sure once I've been a few times there'll be no more aches, just a stronger person! It's gonna be hard but I defo want to go again.

December is here so I'll be hitting the gym regularly from now on, and I'm looking forward to it. Its been too long that I've just been sitting in the library living a very sedentary lifestyle, so time to regain the spritely feeling of a well-exercised person, helll yeaaaaaah!

Bad Bad Barnacle! Tales of Schladming World Cup

6am, Tuesday 15th September saw me and Katy Curd hitting the road for the final round of the 2009 UCI World Cup series in Schladming, Austria. With a 15 hour journey to go, it was the start of a lonnnnnng day.

We picked Tom Dowie up just before Dover, managed to squeeze his bike and gear in with the other 7 bikes we had in the van that we were taking out for various people, and managed to arrive in Dover 2 hours before the ferry was due to set off... just for a change, M25 traffic was flowing fast and loose.

I hadn't met Tom before, but he's pretty funny, and I'm pretty sure only he could come out with something as bizarre as "bad barnacle" at Katy cos she always forgets to put her seatbelt on.

Arriving on Wednesday we got into our apartment, then straight up the hill to walk the course. I've been to Schladming before and really like the track, but walking it I really wasn't inspired. I've spent my summer in North Wales riding steep technical tracks with absolutely no hint of a braking bump in them, so I guess I've been pretty spoilt. Schladming on the other hand looked rough and in need of some serious work.

Practice started on Thursday and I had a plan to do 4 runs. I took it steady on the first to get my bearings and then started to rip it up a bit after that. I tried doing a full run in run 3, but it was so hard. I did a 6.15 with three crashes and one stop to look at something quickly, so reckoned I could knock at least 30-45 seconds off in a clean non-stopping run. Fourth run I tried a jump over some roots, but instead of clearing them I landed on them, crashed out and bashed my leg up big time. Just as well it was my last run!


Dead Leg Emily

Friday was qualifiers day, and after the original sign on list being for 44 women, it was down to 35. This was my first world cup in 2 years, and last time I raced it was top 30 to qualify - now it's top 20. I was pretty sure I could make the cut after feeling so good in practice yesterday, so just did a couple of runs to warm up a bit, before qualifiers started at 2 o'clock.

Being unseeded I was one of the last riders down, so I was going to know pretty instantaneously whether I'd made the cut. I set off well, keeping everything together, though by the bottom I was sooo tired that I felt ridiculously slow. It wasn't over yet though - in the final woods before the grassy finish, the front wheel slipped on a root just before the drop onto the bridge out of the woods. I fell down the drop and the bike fell down off to the right. I jumped up as quick as I could, but it's wierd how you get up and the reaction to run is so delayed, you're so stunned that you're not on your bike any more and you actually have to run to it, instead of just picking it up from next to you. I pushed it back up onto the track, though I got a bit stuck on some divot or other, and jumped back on to pin it down the grass to the bottom. I kinda thought it was all over but you never know - someone else might've had a crash - but I had wasted so much time. I crossed the line in 20th place, just in. However, there was one more rider to go, and I knew she was good. She came through with a time that put her in 13th and pushed me down to 21st. Having been 14th at the split, I was proper gutted.

The rest of the weekend rolled on, sun shone, we hung out and drank beer, good times. The 4x race was a highlight, Katy was racing and got through all the way to the semis. Next thing you know, she's in the Final and finishing in third place - her first World Cup podium! BADass Barnacle - yeahhh World Cup Katy!!

It was ace to be able to personally congratulate Peaty on his World Champs win, and properly watch the women's race, rooting for the brits that did get in. Even better was Tracy coming down with a time that no one else could match, and winning the race.

Despite not qualifying, it was a well good weekend, and reminded me why World Cups are so good. Well keen for some more next year, so fingers crossed I can make it out to as many as possible.

Ahaaa!

Yep, that's kinda the sound of excitement I was making last weekend at the final round of the Midlands Summer Series. After about two weeks of dryness I was pretty excited to be going to a race that was blatantly going to be dry and dusty, and with any luck it would be on the really cool track with the wicked open section - this was at Hopton.. the one with the "quarry" drop.

Loads of stuff has happened this season and I've been rubbish in not updating my blog so sorry, this is going to be a long one! I'll try and summarise:

1. I did round 4 of the Midlands at Bala, absolutely loved it, the Yeti felt amazing and I can absolutely see why everyone raves about that track. I won the race too but wanted to see what my time would be compared to Rach and Tracy and Gas etc when the National Champs were held there about a month later.


Practising with Monet Adams at Bala.

2. The Yetis were recalled by the importer so I had no bike for a bit. I managed to borrow a Sunday from a friend who works for Jim Walker, the Ironhorse distributor - cheers Mart!! I'd borrowed another Sunday earlier in the year so I knew how they felt - pretty easy to get straight on and go rip. Sweet.

3. Did Bala National Champs on the Sunday which was fun but I could've done with a lighter spring in the bike really. The weather wasn't quite as good as it had been at the Midlands race, but all in all it held up fairly well. I followed Katy Curd down one bit and she just pings off everything, she is the pump monster. I was right behind her though and pretty pleased about that as I hadn't yet actually raced against her although we've ridden trails together a couple of times. In the end I came 4th with a not tooooo bad run, but I was off the pace a bit (can't remember my time now), so a little disappointed. Then again I wasn't riding the Yeti and I really think it would've been quicker down that track than the Sunday was.

4. Sourced a new bike. From a Yeti 303 what can you go to? Well for me the only choice was an Intense M6. It comes with a Manitou shock which isn't the greatest so I quickly shelled out on a BOS shock and I can say that is the best thing I could ever have done for it. It feels amaazing with that in.


Click for bigger image.

5. Went to France for a bit, had some fun, rode a lot of DH, came back, didn't ride the Intense for about a month until last weekend to go to Hopton!


Midway through an XC ride in the Alps. Checking the map for some new and unexplored territory, which turned out to be super cool when we rode it, and even better when we went back a few days later on DH bikes!

So yeah, now we're in current time... so, Hopton Midlands Race: If you've been there, it was the track which has the road gap jump at the top, then the quarry drop half way down, the fast open section and switch backs at the bottom. I got up and did my first run, blazing sunlight so nothing but t-shirt and shorts for me, it was too hot to wear much armour so I didn't. Bike felt absolutely amazing. I've had that amount of time of my DH bike before but have never got back on it and really noticed how good it feels halfway through my first run. If you're thinking of upgrading your shock, get a BOS shock (from TFtuned.com). If you want an amazing bike to put it in, get an Intense M6. This thing has a pretty slack headangle and a BB lower than an Ironhorse. Needless to say it corners like it was on rails.

Saturday was just an uplift/practice day so I just rode and had fun, didn't think too hard about lines and whatnot, and just caught up with mates I hadn't seen for ages. Sunday I started thinkin about lines a bit but to be honest, that track just works for me so I didn't think too hard about it. First runs came round and I knew I needed to put a good one in on this one, as while we were waiting to go, it started spitting with rain. I set off with a fairly good start, but eventually made a few mistakes and lost a bit of time, to put in a 2.36. I reckoned I could probably go faster, and undoubtedly was riding faster in practice the day before, but then the heavens opened. The elite and expert field came down in the worst of what was to be a heavy rain shower for about an hour-ish, and said it was pretty minging. So I figured I probably wouldn't go faster in my second run, sacked it off to walk the track and chat to some friends who were marshalling and watch everyone else riding, bit like a rare treat.



Good weekend all round, I won the race, the series, and some Quad wheels (those white ones, white rims and white hubs) which are for sale as they don't fit my bike (135mm rear hub, my bike takes a 150mm rear hub), so if anyone's interested in a very nice pair of bolt through DH wheels for a 135mm back end, give me a shout! Super stoked on DH again after such an ace season finisher, shame it just started raining!